AUSTIN — Faced with the biggest freedom of speech issue to hit campus in a long time, the University of Texas at Austin backed down from a threat barring two students from classes next semester for failing to take down a political poster displayed on their dorm window.

UT President William C. Powers Jr. on Thursday ordered an immediate suspension of the university's policy banning "advertisements, posters, flags, clothing or any externally visible display" on dorm windows and screens, acknowledging that it had caused "intense concern" among the university's 50,000 students.

His order means the university will not make good on its threat to bar the two cousins at the center of the free speech case — Connor Kincaid, 20, and Blake Kincaid, 19 — from spring classes.

The students, members of University Democrats, defied repeated warnings to take down the 11-by-17-inch white and burnt orange Obama/Noriega poster they affixed last month to the window of the room they share in Brackenridge dorm. Democrat Rick Noriega is running against Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.

"It's great news," Connor Kincaid, a music major from Austin, said Thursday.

Even the president of the College Republicans hailed the decision, saying his group had put aside political differences and was solidly behind the cousins, going so far as to back Republican members who in solidarity displayed McCain/Palin signs in their dorm windows.

"It's a double standard. On the one hand, the university encourages students to go out and vote, and then it bars us (from displaying political signs). It's silly. This is political speech," said Ryan Ellis, 20, a junior majoring in government and political communications who is president of the College Republicans.

'Great for morale'

UT-Austin spokesman
Don Hale
said the sign policy was drawn up in 2002 by a task force examining the university's freedom of speech rules. The policy was not intended to clamp down on freedom of speech, Hale said.

"It isn't a political issue," he said. But rescinding the policy, he added, "opens the door to people who would want to put 'Ku Klux Klan" or 'so and so sucks' signs" on display.

Leah Finnegan, editor-in-chief of the Daily Texan, the university's newspaper, said the university's sign policy had served to unify students behind the Kincaid cousins like nothing she has seen before.

"It's been great for morale," she said.

UT-Austin isn't the only public university with rules limiting what students can and can't display in their living quarters.

UT-Dallas bars students who live in university apartments (there are no dorms) from displaying "flags, signs and banners ... on patios, balconies, or windows or from any other area visible from the exterior, without approval from management."

University spokeswoman Jenni Huffenberger said the policy was not intended to inhibit personal expression.

"It's about aesthetics and keeping the community crisp and clean and clutter-free." She said holiday decorations are welcome and must be removed within five days of the occasion.

UT-El Paso bans students from displaying anything considered profane or offensive, but political ads are OK, said Charlie Gibbens, director of the school's housing services.

Change came quickly

The suspension of the sign policy at UT-Austin came less than 24 hours after the Kincaid cousins were hauled individually before a disciplinary committee for "window display policy violation."

Each was found guilty and given 48 hours to comply with the order to remove the sign or be barred from registering for spring classes with "more severe disciplinary action" to follow, according to a Notice of Disciplinary Action and Sanctions the university sent to the men.

Connor Kincaid said the facts were not in dispute.

"We're not denying we're in violation of the policy. We just disagree with the policy," he said.

Connor Kincaid's father, Mark, is a civil trial attorney in Austin. It probably didn't hurt that Mark Kincaid, himself a backer of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, was prepared to represent his son and his nephew in court.

"I was in the process of drafting the pleadings to protect their First Amendment rights," Mark Kincaid said.

"I can tell you I would have represented them with about 100 Texas lawyers beside me."